And I’d rather not be called a Sister of the Force, either. This is not a silly homebrew internet roleplay. We are not all 12, and we certainly don’t need any more reason to be treated like mythological beasts. And hell, Star Wars fandom on the whole has done pretty well without a label. I say we keep that tradition.

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13 thoughts on “Please don’t call me a ‘fangirl’”

The only time I ever think of “fanboy/fangirl” being a positive term is in the View Askew universe of Kevin Smith related fandom. So I’m all for advocating leaving “fangirl” at the door because the scary Twilight fans and old school Beatles fans have just tossed that one out the door.

Sister of the Force sounds entirely too close to the White Current chicks.

My thing is we don’t need a name or cutesy title- what we need is that it is not a shock in society that women like science and non-romance genre fiction! It’s 2010 for crying out loud. Time for people to open their perspectives a bit!

I don’t like the term “fanboy” either. It’s okay for teenage fans, but I’d say the vast majority of Star Wars fans are a little older these days. That’s why I usually resort to using “fan” and “fanette” which brings a certain joie de vivre to the whole experience. ;-)

I think those sorts of labels are created so we can make cultural assumptions about people, particularly about the ways they spend their leisure. Thankfully, Star Wars possesses a larger appeal that makes those sorts of cultural assumptions foolish and unrepresentative of any group of people. That’s why I believe all the stupid labels they’ve attempted to put on Star Wars enthusiasts haven’t stuck over the years.

Well, we’ve taken the words ‘nerd’ and ‘geek’ back. They’re our words now, but not sure why you can’t be a ‘sci-fi fan’ or a ‘Star Wars fan’ without the requirement for it to be gender specific. Anyone with an ounce of knowledge knows that a massive proportion of sci-fi/fantasy fans are female. That’s like people being shocked that there are female heavy metal fans, or male nurses…